Linux a good place to start?

[Fallacious-Fool]

My interest is in network security although not limited to, that out of the way my question is; would linux be a good place to start learning network security, programming languages, and more in depth the inner workings of that particular Operating system? I have extreme minimal experiance with the Linux Operating System myself but from research believe it would be better than windows for learning as it is open source and has many free programs available to it.

Another problem is what distribution would be recomended? I have personally researched myself and have downloaded Sentinix ( Link: http://sentinix.tigerteam.se/ ) it's a dead project now but was a security oriented Linux Distribution and to my knowledge minimal if any bugs and comes with some basic securty software and developement tools.

Any thoughts, suggestions, or criticism is welcome.

[noid]

Use the forums search function. The 'which linux distro should I use' question has been answered many times over.

As far as starting out programming, you cant go wrong with something like Linux or BSD. Its like having a full development workstation for free. You have C compilers, C++ compilers, Pascal compilers, fortran compilers, asm compilers. You can practice Perl, Python, or any other scripting language you want.

[klepto]

Lots of IDE's are based or requires KDE/GNOME so you might want to get a distribution of linux that supports both environments. Most do, but for example Slackware does not include gnome anymore.

[Abby_Normal]

I suggest slackware to start. It's got a sharp learning curve, but once you have mastered it everything else seems simple.

[dYn4mic]

distrowatch.com has lots of information on linux distrobutions...
And yes... linux is BY FAR, the direction you should be heading. Network/Computer security and programming couldn't be easier to practice, use, learn, etc... on *nix.
I always wish I could've started out with it from day one. Too bad it didn't exist :-/
The freedom of tools, control and information inside and outside your new linux box will amaze you...... Read a lot, practice a lot, think a lot... learn a lot.
best of luck,
-dyn